Tag Archives: Dodgers

If you’re Bartolo Colon pitching against Clayton Kershaw tonight, considering the Mets’ anemic offense you can’t like your chances if you give up a couple of runs.

Then again, if you’re the Mets’ hitters, you can’t like your chances with Colon on the mound. The Mets aren’t scoring and Colon isn’t preventing anybody from scoring and that’s a losing combination.

COLON: Hanging on. (AP)

At one time Colon was 9-4 with a reasonable chance to make the All-Star team. He was one of the good stories early this year.

He goes into tonight’s game against the Dodgers at 9-8, going 3-6 with a 5.74 ERA over his last ten starts. The Mets have lost six of Colon’s last seven starts, scoring just a combined ten runs. The opposition has scored 33 runs.

Colon now finds himself hanging onto his career, one spanning 18 years and eight teams.

When you’re 42 and primarily throw a not-so-fast fastball, you will get crushed if your control is off. Colon simply doesn’t have the stuff to overcome mistakes.

“It’s all command with him,’’ manager Terry Collins said after Colon’s last start. “Bartolo does not change the way he pitches. Primarily fastball, with a mix of some change-ups and some sliders, but when he commands the fastball, the other stuff is just an accent. And when he doesn’t command the fastball, he’s not the kind of a guy who’s going to go strictly off-speed, he just doesn’t pitch like that.’’

The Mets signed Colon two years ago to a $20-million contract with the intent of logging innings when Matt Harvey was out. He surprised us with 202.1 innings and 15 victories in 2014, and with nine wins so far this season. They got their money’s worth.

In fairness, he exceeded early expectations, but unfortunately is now living up to them.

Last year’s National League champions, San Francisco, won 88 games to qualify as a wild-card entry. For the Mets to win that many games, they must go 41-32, nine games over .500.

Oddsmakers have the Mets at 33-1 to win the World Series, this after being 25-1 on July 1. Evidently, that four-game winning streak entering the break carried little goodwill.

We shall see what the Mets are made of after the first three series of the second half – at St. Louis and Washington, and home to the Dodgers.

The Mets are stacking their rotation for the Washington series, with Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. And, since Syndergaard goes tonight at St. Louis, it computes to the five-man rotation.

That means Harvey will get his way, for at least for the near future. You wanted it big boy, now just pitch.

“For us to stay in this race, we’ve got to beat Washington,’’ said Collins. “That is why we aligned the rotation the way we did.’’

Sure, the Washington games are important, but if the Mets lose in St. Louis but beat the Nationals, what have they gained?

The bottom line is all the games are important to the Mets, who will attempt to reach the postseason for the first time since 2006, but with an offense ranked 28th in scoring at 310 runs, which is roughly 3.5 a game.

With a 3.23 ERA, there is virtually no margin for error, and making it all the more difficult is there’s no imminent help on the horizon, whether from outside the organization; in the minor leagues; or from the return of the injured David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud.

The Mets’ primary competition for the wild-card at Pittsburgh, Chicago and San Francisco. They currently trail the Pirates and Cubs, but are one game up on the Giants. Also, all three teams are .500 or better on the road while the Mets have been dismal away from home. And, of course, the Giants have a championship pedigree.

GM Sandy Alderson has taken heat, and deservedly so, for not being aggressive in the trade market.

He did an admirable job cutting payroll and jettisoning the likes of Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and others, but somewhere in his contract his job description there needs to be a clause about putting a winning team on the field, not a cheap one.

Thomas hit 34 homers with 94 RBI in 1962. He hit 52 homers in three homers for the Mets. Sherman was 0-4 with a 7.71 ERA in eight games for the Mets in 1962, his only season with the team and his last year in the major leagues.

On this date in 1962, Mets pitchers and catchers had their first workout in St. Petersburg. It is the first time the Mets’ uniform was seen in public.

The Mets have always struggled to find their own identity in New York, and part of that can be attributed to the design of their home uniform and colors. Orange was taken from the Giants; blue from the Dodgers, and pinstripes from the Yankees. If you consider Shea Stadium, the walls were Dodger blue and the foul poles were Giant orange.

There have been uniform modifications over the years, but basically the same color scheme with pinstripes.

Pitchers and catchers report today, undergo physicals tomorrow and have their first workout Saturday.

Manager Terry Collins will be away from the team for several days after the passing of his father, Loren Collins, 95, in Midland, Michigan.